The one-on-one service you need at any stage of serious illness

If your family member or friend has a serious illness, but isn’t ready for hospice care, Centrica Care Navigators and our Centrica Palliative Care team might be the right fit for you.

Palliative care is for patients with a life-limiting illness who are expected to live longer than 6 months, and receive compassionate, appropriate care during that time.

Hospice care, a type of palliative care, is specifically for patients who have been diagnosed with a life-limiting illness and are expected to live 6 months or less. They too receive the care that is best for their needs.

“Palliative care focuses on helping people manage their disease and live the best life possible,” says Palliative Medical Director Dr. Michael Raphelson. “It is for a disease that can’t be cured and needs to be managed.”

Avoiding unnecessary hospital visits

Anyone with a serious illness is a candidate for palliative care, including patients with cancer, dementia, or who are on dialysis — anyone who needs dedicated management of the symptoms of their illness. While patients, or their caregivers, can often handle taking medication or a once-a-month doctor appointment, a serious illness requires more attention.

If you’re familiar with our hospice care process, you’ll recognize a lot of what your loved one will receive during palliative care. Symptom management might be the most significant part of that care. A nurse practitioner visits with each patient to review their medication and check on their condition, to make sure they’re receiving appropriate care at all times.

Regular check-ins from a nurse practitioner help reduce the risk of something happening that could send a patient on an unnecessary and expensive hospital visit.

Every patient has their own primary care physician, who is often the person who recommends a patient start palliative care. While that physician still works with the patient when they need a regular examination or when they have some other health issue (for example, a fever or fall), the Centrica Palliative Care team supports the patient in managing their serious illness.

Control over their lives

Palliative care complements a patient’s current care plan and works with their providers to improve quality of life for those suffering from serious illness. It is an added layer of support for those with more complicated needs and serious symptoms of illness.

It is appropriate at any time in the course of a patient’s illness from the time of diagnosis through treatment, and continues when treatment of the illness is no longer available or effective. Palliative care helps with symptom management and decision making, and supports patients and families as they progress through the stages of serious illness.

Sometimes people have the impression that receiving palliative care somehow means all that is left to them is to prepare for death. But that’s the opposite of what a palliative care team is there to do, Dr. Raphelson says.

“People are very anxious, but after we explain that we’ll help them get though treatment, they understand,” he says. “People with symptoms that are managed well live longer. They have more control over their own lives.”

The first visit

During the first visit with a patient, a Centrica Palliative Care nurse practitioner will assess the patient’s health, and how they’re currently managing their long-term illness. If the person is the right fit to receive services, the nurse practitioner will admit the patient to palliative care, and return for regular check-ins.

They can also connect the patient to more resources — everything from meals, public transportation, and social, psychological, and spiritual support, to our own Centrica Adult Day service — to help them live a fulfilling life, even with their disease.

Timely transition

For more than 7 years, Centrica Care Navigators partnered with Bronson Healthcare Group on care for patients with long-term illness, in a program called Advanced Illness Management (AIM). In 2022, management of AIM moved completely to Centrica Care Navigators.

So far, the transition has been very successful. Many of the patients in the AIM program (about 150 people) — and everyone formerly on the AIM staff — has moved to Centrica Care Navigators. That includes administrators and support staff.

“It speaks to the integrity and commitment of the (former AIM) team that they all came,” Dr. Raphelson says.

Contact in our community

Though the name has changed, the service has not — Centrica Palliative Care is available to patients and families in Calhoun, Kalamazoo, and Van Buren counties. There are plans to expand the program to all 10 southwest Michigan counties that Centrica Care Navigators serves.

Centrica Palliative Care continues its partnership with the cancer centers in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, and also works with physician’s offices that aren’t affiliated with Bronson. While a patient’s personal physician is often the one to refer a patient to

Centrica Palliative Care, a friend or family member can also give us a call. People can even contact us for an initial visit for themselves.

To learn more about Centrica Palliative Care, or to make a referral, call 269.345.0273 or visit our referral page.